Welcome to Bimmerfest -- The #1 Online Community for BMW related information! Please enjoy the discussion forums below and share your experiences with the 200,000 current, new and past BMW owners. The forums are broken out by car model and into other special interest sections such as BMW European Delivery and a special forum to voice your questions to the many BMW dealers on the site to assist our members!

E60 / E61 (2004 - 2010) BMW 5-Series E60 Sedan was first seen in the Unites States in the fall of 2003 with a 2004 Model Year designation. The E61 wagon followed shortly there after. The E60/E61 5 series is now available as a 528i, 528xi, 535i, 535xi, 550i and a 535xi sports wagon! -- View the E60 Wiki

Hi, recently the radiator fan went crazy and 2 minutes later a yellow temp icon come up and 1 minute later a red temp icon telling overheating come up and I have to stop my car wait for it to cool down and drive by segments to my home. Basically every-time the yellow icon will come up I stopped not letting the red icon to show up.

Long history short. I found out 2 trouble codes with my scanner (2E82 AND 2E83). Note: if you find any combination of the codes below:

Water pump (WP) and thermostat are located in the non-driver side below the engine. Sorry, you will have to remove both to replace the WP.

Procedure:
1- rise your car so you can reach all the lower splash panels/cover in the bottom of the car
2- secure the car so it does not move and disconnect the battery (rear of the car non- driver side).
3- take out front and back splash (around 20+) screws
4- remove lower protector plate ( 6 big bolts). You will need air powered tools or heavy and good wrenches.
5- remove bolt and move hydraulic hose to the left so you can make room.
6- remove hoses from the thermostat
6.1 - start removing the ones that have the secure wire to keep them in place. Take out the wire lock (you can pry it with a small screwdriver) and then pull the connector out of the each one. (you can drain your system at this time :-) ) thus, have a handy container to collect the cooling fluid.
6.2 - remove the 2 bolts that keep the thermostat in place
6.3 - pull the thermostat to the side so you can see and reach the other 2 hoses
6.4 - gently unscrew the clamp that holds the small hose - fluid will drain when you remove the hose- and then pull to the side to remove the hose.
6.5 - gently unscrew the clamp that hold the big hose - fluid again - and with one hand reach the hose from the back of the frame and pull with your other hand the thermostat.
7. now you can reach the top bolt to remove the WP. Remove the 3 bolts.
8. pull the water pump and detach the hose that connect the thermostat - make sure you remember of have a picture of the position of the hose.
9. now you can reach and detach from the WP the hose that connects the WP with the engine - make sure you remember of have a picture of the position of the hose.
10. remove the electrical connector to the WP.
11. Installation procedure is the opposite from 10 to 1.
12. Make car level in garage.
13. Fill fluid to top, close cap, initiate bleed process: key in, then press ignition on (do not press the break) - then accelerator pedal to the floor - 5-10 seconds and you should heard the pump working - and wa-la, pump operated for a minute or less, loosen cap and refill; repeat process until level is OK. note: When the pump operated, I smiled.

As to item 13. of the above write-up, I would like to point out that the bleed process is different in the Bentley's manual for the N54 turbo engine. It is an automatic sequence initiated after selecting the lowest fan speed and heat set to max. and holding the accelarator down for about 10 seconds with ignition on. The automatic process runs exactly 12 minutes and shuts off by itself. Also coolant reservoir cap needs to be closed.
Attached PDF lists details.

Attached are a picture of the necessary torx socket wrench and the water pump bolts.

The regular sockets will work for the star bolts they fit snug and wont slip if u use the right size. I removed my water pump and thermostat with all regular sockets, u will need the small ratchet to get in the tight areas. Don't waist your money!

Good write up. I replaced mine Friday. Took me much longer but I have big hands getting everything out was the tough part for me. Putting back together was quick. You can drain most fluid out through the petcock valve, I would also suggest a large shallow drain pan as fluids will trickle down other places. I did an oil change while I had her up.

I did mine in the garage with a jack and some stands. I bought parts from the dealer I couldn't be without the car waiting on parts to be delivered. Getting past the hydronic lines for were the most difficult part of the Job. Loosen the brackets that hold them if you don't want to disconnect them and had to drain refill them.

Thanks MachtShnell. I assume you did this work on the 08 535xi?
I have an 06 and my indie mechanic told me BMW made some changes to the 5 series in late 06.

I'm not sure what changes we're made, but he told me you can't just replace the thermostat on early 06 530 XI and that the thermostat and pump are sold together for yhst reason. Originally my mechanic was going to replace the thermostat, but then called to say that's not possible!?

Looks like I need to do some more research.

Thanks for the response, I hope that they are the same or close so i can do the work myself and can Julio's great instructions.

Sorry replaced it on a 08 535i. no need for AWD in Hotlanta. I am not sure about the 06, but depending on the mileage of the current water pump you might save yourself some time and heart ache by doing them both now. My thermostat went and just replaced it, 3-6 months later my pump went out, woulda coulda shoulda. Hope you have a heated garage, starting to get cold up in CT. I am up there often in Danbury and Shelton and this is not my favorite time of year up there.

Hello. I replaced water pump(continental OEM) and thermostat(hamann) on my 535XI and now I'm getting the error code p0128. Error code refer to bad thermostat, so i was thinking to put old thermostat back. I replaced everything because water pump developed a leak on the seam.

Hello. I replaced water pump(continental OEM) and thermostat(hamann) on my 535XI and now I'm getting the error code p0128. Error code refer to bad thermostat, so i was thinking to put old thermostat back. I replaced everything because water pump developed a leak on the seam.

Symptoms:
- Driving moderate warning
- Overheat warning: car went up to 132C but never into limp mode
- Loud continuous radiator fan blowing and sometimes cycles fast to slow to fast (usually when the heater is on). Sometimes, the fan blows loud right at start-up, even in 40-degree weather.
- Heater would work when the water pump was working and suddenly gets cold. Then, the car began to overheat.

Took the car to the mechanic, and he said there were no codes. He mentioned a valve cover gasket leak that might've been short-circuiting the electrical wires and giving off false readings. I bought the gasket and replaced it--no more leaks. Then, the car began overheating even faster. I thought the car had electrical problems because the water pump sometimes worked and other times didn't, so I cleaned all the wiring on a warmer day. All of a sudden, the car began to operate fine for a little while (thinking the problems only occurred in the cold weather). The problem came back. Everytime the car reached a high temperature, I would pull over, turn the car off, and run the coolant bleeding cycle. The water pump would turn on, and the engine temperature went down. That method worked for about 2 weeks before the water pump officially died. A few days later, the battery level was very low. I guess running the bleeding procedure and having the radiator fan coming on at full speed killed the battery.

I bought a thermostat (~$70) and water pump ($399) from oembimmerparts and did the replacement. It's a fairly easy job and took 2-3 hours. Everything works fine now. Hopefully, I don't run into anymore problems with that.

Great write up. Attempted this today and wow when you have big hands and no lift its a PITA! Got everything off and new pump on now just a couple more hoses to get back on the new tstat and ill be good to go! Ill report back tomorrow. Had the 2E81 and 2E82 codes and the car was starting to get really warm.

In regard to the yellow "Spill Free Funnel" in the Videos (Item 24680-$29.95) the black plastic cap would not screw onto the expansion tank in my 2006 530i E60.
The expansion tank has "Course Threads" and the black plastic cap that comes with the "Spill Free Funnel" has Fine Course threads.
That was a real FUBR and I have sent a email to BavAuto.

Great write up. Attempted this today and wow when you have big hands and no lift its a PITA! Got everything off and new pump on now just a couple more hoses to get back on the new tstat and ill be good to go! Ill report back tomorrow. Had the 2E81 and 2E82 codes and the car was starting to get really warm.

Ok. Wrapped up the tstat yesterday AM... had to put on the top smaller hose while the stat was out of position then placed it back in and moved to the rear larger hose that connects to the water pump. Then the other two quick clamp hoses, bolted her in and attached the cable. Shortly after while the coolant was already drained I went ahead and tackled another job by changing the gaskets on the oil filter canister.

Also... just be aware that after a few hours of pre diagnosis for the WP my battery was apparetnly weak... so after sitting for 3 days I actually needed to fully charge and then re pair the battery via diagnostic software. Finally I cleared all codes at the same time and after a couple test drives everything is looking great!

Originally I did watch the Bavarian Auto videos, and that's what encouraged me to take on this job myself, that and the fact that I knew my local BMW dealer would want a lot of money, and also a local BMW specialist who quoted me 6 hours labour and parts that were marked up. Of course I understand that everyone has to make a living. On the video, I missed the disclaimer text "not for xi" at the beginning, it would have been better if the presenter could have mentioned that clearly!

I'm not sure what the production/sales numbers were for E60/E61 535xi AWD cars versus the E60 535i RWD, but obviously there is a world of difference between the two when it comes to accessing the water pump and thermostat and their hoses, and Bavarian Auto choose the 535i to make their video. Here in the North East I would think that AWD xi's vastly outnumber RWD i's, although I used to run both a Z3 Coupe and e39 M5 year round, and had no serious problems on winter tyres.

Having worked for hours now and still not got the job done, I can't imaging what a video would be like of replacement on a 535xi - Unless it's done by someone with small hands, I would expect lots of cursing! Even a non-turbo 530xi is apparently going to be easier because there is at least more room above the engine without the turbos, reportedly giving at least some access from the top side - Although surely the hose clips need to be "clocked" in the right positions to take advantage of that?

Our car has almost 102k and seems like it has the original pump and thermostat, so I guess we should count ourselves lucky, except for the fact that we purchased it as a CPO and it already had full maintenance, so it would have been great if it had failed 6 months ago before the CPO ran out, when it would have been covered.

The new thermostat is quite different looking, all plastic construction where the old one is metal. This is the "BMW one" purchased from Bavarian Auto, also a BMW pump, and new bolts. I am hoping these new parts are gong to last as long as the originals, since replacing $500+ of thermostat/pump every 50,000 (as some are reporting) would be crazy. To think that an engineer at BMW was probably very well paid to "design" this nightmare thermostat/pump/hose configuration in the first place! I though our VW Passat 3.6 4-Motion wagon was ridiculous for needing front bumper removal to replace the xenon headlamp bulbs when one blew (at least that was straightforward and only took a couple of hours) but BMW's inaccessible 535xi water pump configuration tops that - What were they thinking!

I will have another go tomorrow - I've removed the two thermostat hoses (with clips) and drained the system (helped to gently open the coolant reservoir tank cap) and have undone one of the other thermostat hose clips, but the hose is stuck in place. I unbolted the thermostat, and the 3 pump bolts (top bolt was tricky) now just need a fresh burst of energy to pull the thermostat forward far enough to remove the other hose clip, and dislodge the hose ends.. For the hose on the pump, I'm not even sure how that is going to be possible to reach in the limited space, but I'm counting on the fact that it must be easier once the thermostat is out!

Last edited by Record Genie; 01-18-2015 at 11:48 AM.
Reason: Corrected spelling/grammar